Bring In The Clowns
by JackiLeigh
Summary: One shot. Sam and the Clown Motel of Tonapah, Nevada.


BRING IN THE CLOWNS

AN: This story was inspired by a mention on Facebook by Gina T. Thanks, my SPN sister. I couldn't find much on the place. Sam will explain my experiences with my research in the story.

"…tired, Dude. Just sayin'." Sam scrubbed his hand over his face. He didn't realize he had so much stubble. He needed to drive the beard it little too, it seemed.

"Not a problem, Sasquatch!" Dean said, watching his brother's expression at the nickname. The elder Winchester sighed. He was tired too. The result of non-stop research and working had them both beat.

"I'm just ready to fall into…." That was when he got his first glance of the hotel and the clown on the sign. Sam looked at Dean. "This is not funny."

"What?" Dean said. He was so tired, he didn't even see the clowns. He was already imagining himself asleep in bed.

"Seriously?!" Sam said, becoming more and more alarmed by the minute.

"What!" Dean was tired, he was in no mood. He still was not paying much attention to the clown theme going on…all around him.

"Clowns, Dude. All the freakin' clowns!" Sam was growing concerned. "What is wrong with you?"

Dean finally looked around him. He just stared. "Holy Clowns, Batman!"

"I can go a few more miles." Sam said, not making any move to get out of the car.

"Well, I can't. And, there is probably not another hotel or motel for another 50 miles." Dean opened the door to get out. "Suck it up, ClownBoy!"

Sam still didn't move. "I'm sleeping in the car!"

Dean got out and slammed the door. He made his way to the office. "Good luck with that." He said, knowing that Sam could never get comfortable in the car and would, at some point have to come into the room to sleep.

Dean paid for himself and his brother. He shook his head as he headed back to the car, with the key, to get his bags.

"What?" Sam said getting out of the car and going to the back as Dean opened the trunk.

"It's creepy, Dude. There are freakin' clowns like, all over the place?" Dean stated.

"Yeah, no kidding!"

Dean shook his head. "You haven't seen the office, Dude. They're like, on shelves, everywhere. A freakin' clown convention…big ones, little ones, clown dolls, little ceramic knick-knacky things. They got one that likes a full-size person…and the face, Dude. It's so real-looking. I thought he was going to jump up out of the chair, any minute."

Sam could actually feel his skin crawl. Dean was not a fearful person. He could not understand that base, primal fear that came with something like this. The irrational, yet real fear of something you think might just kill you if you got too close to it. And right now, being in the parking lot even, was feeling like it was too close. He cleared his throat. It felt like it was closing. His chest was getting tighter, and he was having a little trouble breathing. He had even considered grabbing the keys from Dean and just taking off.

But, right now, Sam couldn't breathe. He turned his back to the Impala and slid himself to the ground. He then pulled his legs up and rested his head on his knees as he tried to regain control of his breathing. He could hear and feel his heart beating. It was so loud he could hardly hear Dean talking to him.

"Sammy! Dude!" Dean paused, his fear mounting when Sam couldn't or wouldn't respond to him. "Sam, Man, come on!" He said as he sat down beside his brother. There was nothing else he could do. He put his hand to Sam's back and rubbed it, like he used to when they both were kids.

Neither brother spoke again for the next several minutes. The office manager, Karen Majors, came out to check on her guests. She had not seen them go inside the room. She could not understand why that had not happened. And, she couldn't understand why they had left the trunk up on the car. She went around the car and saw both men sitting on the ground.

Karen looked at the two for just a moment, trying to assess the situation. She could recognize a panic attack when she saw one. And, she had had no idea so many people had clown phobias until she came to manage the motel. It was unreal how many people came through Tonapah and had such a severe reaction to it.

"Do I need to call 9-1-1?" Karen asked.

Dean immediately shook his head. But, she waited for Sam to shake his before she made another move.

Karen put her hand out. "Give me your key." She said to Dean.

Dean reached into his jacket pocket and gave it to her. But, not before he gave her a confused look.

"Take your time. I have something to do first." Karen then turned and headed for their room. She immerged, moments later, with her arms loaded down with clown memorabilia. She headed straight to the office. She then returned and handed the key back to Dean. "I have seen it many times. People with a clown phobia. Don't feel bad. It happens. There are no more clowns in your room. Hope you enjoy you stay with us." Karen then made her way back to the office, knowing her guests would be okay.

Dean said nothing for a moment, looking at Sam with his big-brother concern.

Sam nodded. "I'm okay." He said, standing. His heart rate had slowing and his breathing was returning to normal. Dean stood with him.

"If…" Dean started.

Sam shook his head. "I think I'm okay. She…she took that crap out of the room. I'm gonna…I think I can sleep in there now."

Dean nodded. "Good. Go on in. I'll grab the bags."

Sammy nodded. He felt better. But, he did cringe a little when he got to their door and realized that the room next to theirs had a clown on the door and a clown sign hanging in the window. He went in and quickly inspected, looking under bed and in closets to make sure it was clown free. Satisfied, he had picked his bed and had started to undress by the time Dean had the bags separated and had pulled his jacket off.

Dean smiled as Sammy slid under the covers. He was going to sleep through this. He'll get up in the morning and we'll get on down the road. This won't be a problem. Dean though as he too got ready for bed.

The footsteps were louder this time. They seemed to stop at their door or at their neighbor's doors, on either side. But, they were that close. Sam had no idea if anyone checked in after they had arrived. He was asleep before Dean even went to bed. But, here at 3:27 a.m. he was wide awake and Dean was snoring. The younger Winchester was not going to wake his brother up. He didn't want Dean razzing him when he woke up and heard nothing. Besides, for all Sam knew, it could have been just his anxiety making his brain work overtime.

Sam lay awake for the next half-hour before he decided to get up and do some research. He googled 'clown motel.' It came up 'Clown Motel Tonapah.' Sam then typed 'Tonapah.'

Sam heard the footsteps again. He crept to the door and opened it up. Only to be met by the sounds of the desert, and a wall of heat. He quickly closed the door, glad that their air was working and was on full blast. He shook his head and sat back down on the bed, pulling the laptop back into his lap. An hour later he closed the laptop. He bookmarked his page went to the bathroom and then went back to bed.

"Dude, you slept like the dead last night. That guy banged on our door like 4 times. You didn't even move!" Dean said as he popped out of the bathroom, toothbrush and all.

"What guy?" Sam said as he threw the covers off, stood up and stretched.

He started to search his bag for clean underwear and shampoo.

"Dude…seriously?" Dean could tell his brother had no idea what he was talking about. "It was some guy, dressed in a clown suit. I guess making sure you didn't sleep past checkout. But, Dude…it was so freakin' loud!"

Sam shook his head. "I guess you didn't hear all the footsteps and stomping last night."

"What…stomping? Really?"

Sam nodded his head. Then he stared for just a second at the toothbrush Dean was holding.

"I thought she got all the clown stuff out of here. I even checked. She must have missed the bathroom." Sam said, though he remembered, very well, checking the bathroom. And the no toothbrushes, much less clown toothbrushes.

"No, she got it all. Even the towels had clowns on them, she said. She took those yesterday. She had to hunt us some plain white towels this morning. She…." Dean explained.

"Then where did the clown toothbrush come from, Dean?" Sam said, pointing to the brush the elder brother was using. "Because it wasn't in here when I got up to use the bathroom this morning. I checked the drawers, everything."

Dean stopped and took the brush out of his mouth. He looked at it the way Superman might look at kryptonite. He threw the toothbrush into the trash. "Most motels don't do wake up calls. Do they?"

"Not from past experience, no?" Sam stated. Hey might give you a wake-up phone call. But, they didn't go around knocking on the doors. That would only bring on a slew of complaints from other guests.

"It takes a LOT of strength, energy to knock on the door like that." Dean observed.

"How many more did he knock on?" Sam asked. "And how did you know….

Dean just sat for a moment. "I looked out, Sammy. I know what a clown looks like. And, I think he only knocked on our door. He just…disappeared. I didn't see him walking around anywhere. And, I opened the door and looked."

"Maybe we are the only guests here."

"There were more than two cars outside yesterday." Dean recalled. "When I came in and shut the door, there were 4 cars in the parking lot. I'm sure that there were more people out, looking around. We went to bed early."

Sam nodded, then he shrugged. "I started research on the place. Turns out that this place is in Tonapah. And there is more than one Tonapah. Arizona has one, two. But, I couldn't find much history on the place. A few local heroes are buried next door, saw a YouTube video on that." Sam said. "I saw where some of those ghost shows have been here. One of the stars of one of those shows hates clowns, too, Dean. See, I'm not the only one who…."

"I thought you were tired last night."

"I was. But, I couldn't sleep with all the stomping."

Dean shook his head. "I never heard the first sound."

"Do you want to hear what I found out?" Sam asked.

"Is this a case?"

"I don't know. I got bored, sitting here, listening to you snore. It was interesting, just listen!" Sam looked at the laptop screen and began to read. "The hotel is home to over 600 clown figurines, statues and signs. The hotel is haunted and so is the huge cemetery on the other side of the road, directly across from the hotel. The hotel and cemetery have been featured on several paranormal themed shows…Ghost Adventures and Ghost Hunters, along with several others, who ran small features concentrating mostly on the hotel."

Dean sat down on the bed. He looked around in his bag. Looking for mouthwash and wondering why he had even picked up that toothbrush and used it in the first place. The idea it could have been someone else's made him almost want to gag. He shook his head and turned his attention back to what his brother was saying.

"The town has a history of a mining tragedy back in the late 1800's which killed many residents. Who, coincidently, are buried beside the hotel. The hotel was built in the 1920's by the children of one of the miners, as a way to honor him. They themed it with clowns because their father loved them."

Dean looked at his brother after he stopped reading. He knew that there was something else he wanted to say.

"People love history, most people do anyway. This place, I couldn't find much on it. And, I searched, several sites. The only history I got was when I watched on those ghost shows. It's weird, not all the history the ghost shows got was paranormal. And, I can see them not wanting to cater to the ghost hunters, per say. We both know what they can do, the downside to letting people in who practice bad stuff. But, why not make the regular history public? What is spooky about some kids wanting to honor their parents with a clown motel?"

"Unless you want to put it beside a cemetery."

"No, not really. Not if he was buried in that cemetery."

"Okay, that almost makes sense. But…."

"But what? Cemeteries have existed by churches for centuries. "People still go to church. Some go every Sunday."

"Maybe churches are haunted, too. And the parishioners don't want to admit it." Dean replied.

Sam shook his head.

"What do we want to do about this?" Dean asked, curious as to what his brother would say.

"I'm not sure we should do anything." Sam stated. "These ghosts were miners, not serial killers, not murderers. Just men working hard to make money to support their families. Bad enough they had to die the way they did. Why add insult to injury?"

"Are they dressing up in the clown suits and heading across the street?"

Sam shrugged. "It was a time when few forms of entertainment were available. If the circus came through, if they saw a clown…it was probably a big deal."

Dean nodded. "Go shower, I'll load the car. I saw a diner a few miles back. We'll go get some breakfast."

"Sounds good." Sam said as he shut down his laptop.

Dean grinned. He waited a moment until Sam when went into the bathroom. He fished the clown toothbrush out of the trash can. He cleaned it by dunking it into his mouthwash. Then he dried it and buried it in Sam's bag, under his clothes. He zipped the bag up and carried it out to the car.

THE END

Hope you enjoyed! JL


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